New Lidl car park system. Invoices by default?

New Lidl car park system. Invoices by default?

Author
Discussion

Negative Creep

24,942 posts

226 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
quotequote all
SpeedMattersNot said:
As others have said, if the normal 10-15 mins free parking existed, then that's absolutely fine. It also encourages customers to be decisive and get on with it (something Aldi obviously love when they throw your eggs in your face after they've scanned them).
I've only recently been told that the correct etiquette is to pack your bags on the shelf at the front of the store boxedin

rigga

8,727 posts

200 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
quotequote all
Mandalore said:
mybrainhurts said:
Mandalore said:
Forget theory.

In practice it will create spaces for their shoppers by removing all the people we all see every day who park there for their personal convenience and then go off somewhere else.

Our local Iceland have good system where you pay £2 for an hour and you get it refunded at the till by showing teR off part of the ticket. Before they did that, you could never find a space, despite the shop being near empty as their car park was in town.
So, if you can't find what you want, and buy nothing, it costs you £2. What a great way make you buy something you don't want. I wouldn't shop there.
Do you ou often got to supermarkets to get your weekly shopping and come away empty handed as they didn't have anything you wanted?
Not just weekly shopper's who use these types of shops though is it, I can't be the only one who goes to aldi or lidl to peruse the man isle for tools and stuff? Sometimes yea I do come away without finding anything I want.

FiF

43,960 posts

250 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
quotequote all
rigga said:
Mandalore said:
mybrainhurts said:
Mandalore said:
Forget theory.

In practice it will create spaces for their shoppers by removing all the people we all see every day who park there for their personal convenience and then go off somewhere else.

Our local Iceland have good system where you pay £2 for an hour and you get it refunded at the till by showing teR off part of the ticket. Before they did that, you could never find a space, despite the shop being near empty as their car park was in town.
So, if you can't find what you want, and buy nothing, it costs you £2. What a great way make you buy something you don't want. I wouldn't shop there.
Do you ou often got to supermarkets to get your weekly shopping and come away empty handed as they didn't have anything you wanted?
Not just weekly shopper's who use these types of shops though is it, I can't be the only one who goes to aldi or lidl to peruse the man isle for tools and stuff? Sometimes yea I do come away without finding anything I want.
Plus the newer way of shopping where people call in for a few things rather than a weekly big shop.

CoolHands

18,496 posts

194 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
quotequote all
I always drive in the exit to counteract their surveillance.

Red Devil

13,055 posts

207 months

Monday 31st August 2015
quotequote all
technogogo said:
I haven't seen this before. Every car is number plate scanned on the way in. You have to give your reg number at the till to avoid being invoiced. It is fair enough in theory but I can think of many scenarios where people may get caught out. For instance if the car park is full, like it nearly was today, most people loop around head to Tesco 200 yards up the road. I sense trouble ahead!
It's not new. Lidl have been using it for over 12 months.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-27...
The Kent store mentioned in the article is in Ashford.

A loop around case involving Parking Eye at Fistral Beach was thrown out last year by a County Court judge.
http://www.cornishguardian.co.uk/Couple-win-parkin...
In fact PE were causing so much general grief that the site owners refused to renew their contract.
http://www.cornishguardian.co.uk/Controversial-par...

technogogo said:
Well firstly keeping non customers out is perfectly valid. But even as a Lidl customer myself this new approach seems to put things well beyond fairness by not taking into consideration instances that do not constitute parking. For instance, a potential shopper, perhaps the most loyal Lidl shopper in the country, drives into car park. There are no spaces. They leave. At this point it seems certain they will get a demand for money though the post.
See above.

technogogo said:
It isn't clear if the system logs entry and exit times as other systems do? The way it is being used doesn' seem to require two times. Just arrival? Hence my interest. Next time I am in the store I'll ask. I only popped in for a couple of items today so didn't want to hang around.
If the system can't record an exit time it will be impossible to 'prove' any length of stay. A court case would founder on that rock.

technogogo said:
This seems to be a sort of escalation in the private parking wars. Perhaps spurred by that pivotal court decision a short while ago?
Until the SC judgement in Beavis is handed down it's all up in the air. That won't happen until the court sits again after its summer recess.
The PE contract for the Riverside car park in Chelmsford has some unique features (HHJ Moloney mentioned this in his Appeal Court ruling).

It is going to be very interesting to discover what the SC has decided and on what basis.

rich888

2,610 posts

198 months

Monday 31st August 2015
quotequote all
technogogo said:
I haven't seen this before. Every car is number plate scanned on the way in. You have to give your reg number at the till to avoid being invoiced. It is fair enough in theory but I can think of many scenarios where people may get caught out. For instance if the car park is full, like it nearly was today, most people loop around head to Tesco 200 yards up the road. I sense trouble ahead!

Edited by technogogo on Sunday 30th August 15:28
I can't see this lasting long when Lidl management pull their heads out of their bottoms and back down on this system when they start adding up the postage fees involved with posting out all these invoices, along with the huge increase in loss of their customer base to the likes of Aldi, Tesco or Sainsbury's.

They might also have a problem with contract law on this but I will leave the small-print to BV.

And on a different note, if I shopped at Lidl and was asked for my car registration number at the till I would have to say I don't remember it, then would promptly walk out of the store like any good Lidl customer would to the car, then back again in order to provide it to the drone on the till with the numberplate. Might take a bit of time what with the dodgy leg, the cigarette break, checking the weather forecast, and any other incidental trivia that I could think of to piss the Lidl management off and realise that it is the customer that they serve, not the other fking way round, then leave everything on the conveyor or trolley, walk out of the store and drive over to Aldi smile

BTW, I don't shop at Lidl, have a dodgy leg or indeed smoke, and come to think of it I don't shop at Aldi, Sainsbury's or Tesco if I can avoid it, but thought I would add these comments for maximum PH effect smile

OldGermanHeaps

3,801 posts

177 months

Monday 31st August 2015
quotequote all
Been many a time i've left lidl empty handed, going to get a tool or something from the flyer they post round, then find out they only had 2 of the thing you were after in the whole shop aand the first customer in the door that morning took them both. No big loss not shopping there anymore if they are going to be arsey about it.

rich888

2,610 posts

198 months

Monday 31st August 2015
quotequote all
Negative Creep said:
SpeedMattersNot said:
As others have said, if the normal 10-15 mins free parking existed, then that's absolutely fine. It also encourages customers to be decisive and get on with it (something Aldi obviously love when they throw your eggs in your face after they've scanned them).
I've only recently been told that the correct etiquette is to pack your bags on the shelf at the front of the store boxedin
We find the Ikea bag in the trolley works best, in that you can cram a whole days (or weeks) worth of shopping in to the bag in a matter of seconds, the bag is far superior to the cheap and nasty 'bags for life' on offer from other supermarkets, and is a damn good advert for I K E A.

Only drawback I can foresee is the fact that you might actually get dragged around Ikea by the wife or girlfriend biggrin

Funkycoldribena

7,379 posts

153 months

Monday 31st August 2015
quotequote all
Funny,I go to a supermarket that has no parking enforcement,yet there seems to always be spaces and none of this parking chaos that keeps getting mentioned here...any company that uses these parasites deserves to go bust in my eyes.

LoonR1

26,988 posts

176 months

Monday 31st August 2015
quotequote all
Funkycoldribena said:
Funny,I go to a supermarket that has no parking enforcement,yet there seems to always be spaces and none of this parking chaos that keeps getting mentioned here...any company that uses these parasites deserves to go bust in my eyes.
Go bust? Don't make me laugh, this is an international company with over £45bn annual turnover. You posted something similar about Hilton Hotels quite recently, do some research.

iandc

3,708 posts

205 months

Monday 31st August 2015
quotequote all
technogogo said:
I haven't seen this before. Every car is number plate scanned on the way in. You have to give your reg number at the till to avoid being invoiced. It is fair enough in theory but I can think of many scenarios where people may get caught out. For instance if the car park is full, like it nearly was today, most people loop around head to Tesco 200 yards up the road. I sense trouble ahead!

Edited by technogogo on Sunday 30th August 15:28
At our local Lidl (Leatherhead) you get 10 mins free so if car park is full no charge. Cameras on entry and exit and 90 minutes free if you shop. It frees up spaces previously used by people not going to Lidl and using the car park for free parking. I think it works well.

voyds9

8,488 posts

282 months

Monday 31st August 2015
quotequote all
Negative Creep said:
Surely if you're making the effort of driving all the way to Iceland it won't be on the hope they have one particular item?
Local Morrisons has this system.

My wife often calls me at work to pop in and buy some milk or some bread.

Unfortunately, at Morrisons you have to buy £5 before the reduction can be applied to the bill. This makes the milk expensive or I have to buy something I don't really need.

LoonR1

26,988 posts

176 months

Monday 31st August 2015
quotequote all
voyds9 said:
Local Morrisons has this system.

My wife often calls me at work to pop in and buy some milk or some bread.

Unfortunately, at Morrisons you have to buy £5 before the reduction can be applied to the bill. This makes the milk expensive or I have to buy something I don't really need.
Or you could buy it somewhere else. You don't say how much they charge.

Trif

746 posts

172 months

Monday 31st August 2015
quotequote all
What happens if you don't purchase anything but browse for an hour?

HustleRussell

24,602 posts

159 months

Monday 31st August 2015
quotequote all
You get an 'invoice'.

Funkycoldribena

7,379 posts

153 months

Monday 31st August 2015
quotequote all
LoonR1 said:
Funkycoldribena said:
Funny,I go to a supermarket that has no parking enforcement,yet there seems to always be spaces and none of this parking chaos that keeps getting mentioned here...any company that uses these parasites deserves to go bust in my eyes.
Go bust? Don't make me laugh, this is an international company with over £45bn annual turnover. You posted something similar about Hilton Hotels quite recently, do some research.
Do you really think I want thousands of people to lose their jobs?

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 31st August 2015
quotequote all
Trif said:
What happens if you don't purchase anything but browse for an hour?
Would you do the same in a restaurant?
Replace table with parking space.

SpeedMattersNot

4,506 posts

195 months

Monday 31st August 2015
quotequote all
speedyguy said:
Trif said:
What happens if you don't purchase anything but browse for an hour?
Would you do the same in a restaurant?
Replace table with parking space.
An hour might be excessive, but I think it's a lot more common to browse in a shop, than it is to browse a menu in a restaurant.

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 31st August 2015
quotequote all
SpeedMattersNot said:
speedyguy said:
Trif said:
What happens if you don't purchase anything but browse for an hour?
Would you do the same in a restaurant?
Replace table with parking space.
An hour might be excessive, but I think it's a lot more common to browse in a shop, than it is to browse a menu in a restaurant.
Best not use the Pophan Diner then eh biglaughhttp://m.basingstokegazette.co.uk/news/13345820.Mo...

Jagmanv12

1,573 posts

163 months

Monday 31st August 2015
quotequote all
swerni said:
My local Waitrose car park is always packed.
Next door is the health center with a tiny car park and opposite is a reasonable size pay and display.

Where do you think everyone parks ( for free) ?

Makes great business sense and looks after your paying customers.
Sounds like my local in WB.

One aspect I've heard about these cameras in local authority car parks is that the local authority gets a payment from DVLA for each untaxed car they report. Maybe Lidl and other supermarkets get the same.